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Board hears proposal to let local GSAs decide groundwater-export sustainability; Merced GSAs preemptively restricted exports
Summary
County staff proposed amending the groundwater mining and export ordinance to allow Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) to determine sustainability for proposed exports; several Merced-area GSAs have already adopted policies prohibiting exports outside the Merced subbasin.
Merced County staff presented a proposed amendment to the county's groundwater mining and export ordinance on Jan. 28 that would create an exemption to the county's export prohibition by allowing local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) to determine whether proposed groundwater exports are sustainable under their Groundwater Sustainability Plans.
Mark Mims, Merced County director of community and economic development, said the proposal aligns the county ordinance with implementation authority already held by GSAs under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) and removes the county's role in making sustainability determinations. Staff said they held in-person and virtual outreach meetings with more than 40 water districts, GSAs and stakeholders while developing the amendment.
Mims told the Board that, following a December 2023 direction to allow GSAs time to adopt policies, the GSAs in the Merced subbasin have since adopted policies prohibiting groundwater export outside the subbasin. That change addressed concerns raised at a prior Board discussion in January 2024 and was part of staff's rationale for returning the ordinance amendment to the Board now.
During public comment Joe Scoto, a member of the Magusa Stakeholder Guidance Committee, urged the Board to add a requirement that an exporting GSA must not be a basin on state probation. "If the state puts them on probation, that it ceases," Scoto said, describing that as a way to protect neighboring basins. Another commenter, Matt Beeman, spoke on behalf of the Merced Irrigation Urban GSA and described the agency's seven-member composition (cities of Atwater, Livingston and Merced; Planada and La Grande community services districts; Winton Water and Sanitary District; and Merced Irrigation District).
The transcript does not record a Board vote on item 20 during the provided excerpt. Staff and stakeholders said the amendment is intended to give GSAs the flexibility to make basin-specific sustainability determinations while maintaining local outreach and interagency coordination.
